36 Quotation Marks
Introductory Project
Read the following scene and underline all the words enclosed within quotation marks. Your instructor may also have you dramatize the scene, with one person reading the narration and two persons acting the two speaking parts—the young man and the old woman. The two speakers should imagine the scene as part of a stage play and try to make their words seem as real and true-to-life as possible.
An old woman in a Rolls-Royce was preparing to back into a parking space. Suddenly a small sports car appeared and pulled into the space. “That's what you can do when you're young and fast,” the young man in the car yelled to the old woman. As he strolled away, laughing, he heard a terrible crunching sound. “What's that noise?” he said. Turning around, he saw the old woman backing repeatedly into his small car and crushing it. “You can't do that, old lady!” he yelled.
“What do you mean, I can't?” she chuckled, as metal grated against metal. “This is what you can do when you're old and rich.”
1. On the basis of the above passage, what is the purpose of quotation marks?
2. Do commas and periods that come after a quotation go inside or outside the quotation marks?
Answers are on page 729.
The two main uses of quotation marks are:
1 To set off the exact words of a speaker or a writer
2 To set off the titles of short works
Each use is explained on the pages that follow.
Quotation Marks to Set Off Exact Words of a Speaker or Writer
Use quotation marks when you want to show the exact words of a speaker or a writer.
“Say something tender to me,” whispered Lola to Tony.
(Quotation marks set off the exact words that Lola spoke to Tony.)
Mark Twain once wrote, “The more I know about human beings, the more I like my dog.”
(Quotation marks set off the exact words that Mark Twain wrote.)
“The only dumb question,” the instructor said, “is the one you don't ask.”
(Two pairs of quotation marks are used to enclose the instructor's exact words.)
Sharon complained, “I worked so hard on this paper. I spent two days getting information in the library and two days writing it. Guess what grade I got on it.”
(Note that the end quotation marks do not come until the end of Sharon's speech. Place quotation marks before the first quoted word of a speech and after the last quoted word. As long as no interruption occurs in the speech, do not use quotation marks for each new sentence.)
Punctuation Hint: In the four examples above, notice that a comma sets off the quoted part from the rest of the sentence. Also observe that commas and periods at the end of a quotation always go inside quotation marks.
Complete the following statements explaining how capital letters, commas, and periods are used in quotations. Refer to the four examples as guides.
1. Every quotation begins with a ________________ letter.
2. When a quotation is split (as in the sentence above about dumb questions), the second part does not begin with a capital letter unless it is a
________________ sentence.
3. ________________ are used to separate the quoted part of a sentence from the rest of the sentence.
4. Commas and periods that come at the end of a quotation should go
________________ the quotation marks.
The answers are capital, new, Commas, and inside.
Activity 1
Place quotation marks around the exact words of a speaker or writer in the sentences that follow.
1. The health-food store clerk said, Sucking on zinc lozenges can help you get over a cold.
2. How are you doing in school? my uncle always asks me.
3. An epitaph on a tombstone in Georgia reads, I told you I was sick!
4. Dave said, Let's walk faster. I think the game has already started.
5. Mark Twain once said, The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't.
6. Thelma said, My brother is so lazy that if opportunity knocked, he'd resent the noise.
7. It's extremely dangerous to mix alcohol and pills, Dr. Wilson reminded us. The combination could kill you.
8. Ice-cold drinks! shouted the vendor selling lukewarm drinks.
9. Be careful not to touch the fence, the guard warned. It's electrified.
10. Just because I'm deaf, Lynn said, many people treat me as if I were stupid.
Activity 2
1. Write a sentence in which you quote a favorite expression of someone you know. Identify the relationship of the person to you.
Example
2. Write a quotation that contains the words Tony asked Lola. Write a second quotation that includes the words Lola replied.
3. Copy a sentence or two that interest you from a book or magazine. Identify the title and author of the work.
Example
Indirect Quotations
An indirect quotation is a rewording of someone else's comments, rather than a word-for-word direct quotation. The word that often signals an indirect quotation. Quotation marks are not used with indirect quotations.
Direct Quotation
Fred said, “The distributor cap on my car is cracked.”
(Fred's exact spoken words are given, so quotation marks are used.)
Sally's note to Jay read, “I'll be working late. Don't wait up for me.”
(The exact words that Sally wrote in the note are given, so quotation marks are used.)
Indirect Quotation
Fred said that the distributor cap on his car was cracked.
(We learn Fred's words indirectly, so no quotation marks are used.)
Sally left a note for Jay saying she would be working late and he should not wait up for her.
(We learn Sally's words indirectly, so no quotation marks are used.)
Activity
Rewrite the following sentences, changing words as necessary to convert the sentences into direct quotations. The first one is done for you as an example.
1. The instructor told everyone to take out a pen and sheet of paper.
2. A student in the front row asked if this was a test.
3. The instructor replied that it was more of a pop quiz.
4. She added that anyone who did the homework would find it easy.
5. The student groaned that he was a dead man.
Quotation Marks to Set Off Titles of Short Works
Titles of short works are usually set off by quotation marks, while titles of long works are underlined. Use quotation marks to set off the titles of such short works as articles in books, newspapers, or magazines; chapters in a book; short stories; poems; and songs.
On the other hand, you should underline the titles of books, newspapers, magazines, plays, movies, record albums, and television shows.
Quotation Marks
the article “The Mystique of Lawyers”
the article “Getting a Fix on Repairs”
the article “Animal Facts and Fallacies”
the chapter “Why Do Men Marry?”
the story “The Night the Bed Fell”
the poem “A Prayer for My Daughter”
the song “Beat It”
Underlines
in the book Verdicts on Lawyers
in the newspaper the New York Times
in the magazine Reader's Digest
in the book Passages
in the book A Thurber Carnival
in the book Poems of W.B. Yeats
in the album Thriller
the television show Dateline NBC
the movie Gone with the Wind
Note: In printed works, titles of books, newspapers, and so on are set off by italics—slanted type that looks like this—instead of being underlined.
Activity
Use quotation marks or underlines as needed.
1. Whenever Gina sees the movie The Sound of Music, the song near the end, Climb Every Mountain, makes her cry.
2. No advertising is permitted in Consumer Reports, a nonprofit consumer magazine.
3. I printed out an article titled Too Much Homework? from the online version of Time to use in my sociology report.
4. Maddie's favorite television show is The Simpsons, and her favorite movie is Titanic.
5. Our instructor gave us a week to buy the textbook titled Personal Finance and to read the first chapter, Work and Income.
6. Every holiday season, our family watches the movie A Christmas Carol on television.
7. Looking around to make sure no one he knew saw him, Bob bought the newest National Enquirer in order to read the story called Man Explodes on Operating Table.
8. Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue and his poem The Raven are in a paperback titled Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
9. When Ling got her TV Guide, she read an article called Who Will Oscar Smile Upon? and thumbed through the listings to read the preview for Ally McBeal.
10. The night before his exam, he discovered with horror that the chapter Becoming Mature was missing from Childhood and Adolescence, the psychology text that he had bought secondhand.
Other Uses of Quotation Marks
1 Quotation marks are used to set off special words or phrases from the rest of a sentence:
Many people spell the words “a lot” as one word, “alot,” instead of correctly spelling them as two words.
I have trouble telling the difference between “their” and “there.”
Note: In printed works, italics are often used to set off special words or phrases. That is usually done in this book, for example.
2 Single quotation marks are used to mark off a quotation within a quotation.
The instructor said, “Know the chapter titled `Status Symbols' in Adolescent Development if you expect to pass the test.”
Lola said, “One of my favorite Mae West lines is `I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.' ”
Review Test 1
Insert quotation marks or underlines where needed in the sentences that follow.
1. Don't you ever wash your car? Lola asked Tony.
2. When the washer tilted and began to buzz, Martha shouted, Let's get rid of that blasted machine!
3. Take all you want, read the sign above the cafeteria salad bar, but please eat all you take.
4. After scrawling formulas all over the board with lightning speed, my math instructor was fond of asking, Any questions now?
5. Move that heap! the truck driver yelled. I'm trying to make a living here.
6. I did a summary of an article titled Aspirin and Heart Attacks in the latest issue of Time.
7. Writer's block is something that happens to everyone at times, the instructor explained. You simply have to keep writing to break out of it.
8. A passenger in the car ahead of Clyde threw food wrappers and empty cups out the window. That man, said Clyde to his son, is a human pig.
9. If you are working during the day, said the counselor, the best way to start college is with a night course or two.
10. I told the dentist that I wanted Novocain. Don't be a sissy, he said. A little pain won't hurt. I told him that a little pain wouldn't hurt him, but it would bother me.
Review Test 2
Go through the comics section of a newspaper to find a comic strip that amuses you. Be sure to choose a strip in which two or more characters are speaking to each other. Write a full description that will enable people who have not read the comic strip to visualize it clearly and appreciate its humor. Describe the setting and action in each panel, and enclose the words of the speakers in quotation marks.